At His Feet
by Echo Alexia
Summary: Indoctrination is strong, it whispers in the subjects' minds, turns them into willing tools, eager to serve. It is subtle at first, progressing until the victims are not themselves, and never will be again. Saren/Benezia. To never be continued :c
1. The Things We Say

The Things We Say

"You seek my counsel often of late, Saren." Benezia noted. She sat beneath Thessian flame trees, outside the compound that marked her religious commune. It was but an hour's drive outside the great city of Armali, not far for any who wished to visit, which was fortunate, for her followers were many.

"I have business on Thessia," He explained. He was standing with his back against the red back of the tree behind her. Even here, in her tranquil siari complex, he never let his guard down. Benezia remembered when he used to sit beside her, but he was younger then.

"You have business on the Citadel as well," She noted, "Sha'ira would be willing to hear you." She sat on the stone bench surrounding a small asari-made pond. Thessian sunfish danced beneath the water. She remembered when she used to dangle her feet amongst them, but she was younger then.

"I want the wisdom of a Matriarch, not a consort." He snarled the word, such that it sounded vile and beneath him. Perhaps it was. Aethyta would have thought so.

"I doubt you've come for a lecture on how worship of Athame does not conflict with siari philosophy." Benezia noted. He'd stayed throughout her entire sermon, quietly brooding in the back of the amphitheater. Their eyes had met more than once.

"The afterlife doesn't concern me," He shifted his feet, kicking up a patch of fresh sharblu grass. He created destruction wherever he went. It was an intriguing paradox. "This life does."

"Speak your mind, Saren." She wouldn't have had to press, in their earlier days, when she had met him as an investor and her as an executive secretary of Binary Helix. He'd trusted her with his funds, and later with his views.

He shifted his feet again, more grass met its end. It was a shame. It was such a lovely color. "All your lectures of peace and progress, but not one of how far you're willing to go to obtain it."

Benezia pushed herself up with a grace that came from a millennium of practice. She turned to face him with her hands behind her back. "This is not a conversation to have in public."

"This isn't a conversation to have anywhere." He countered. "There's change coming. Change that only happens once, even in your lifetime." It would have been an insult to another race, but asari revered age for its wisdom, and would have taken it as a compliment. Benezia took it as neither; Saren meant it only for the number. "If it's unavoidable, why resist it? Why not embrace it?"

"You speak in circles," He looked anxious, but he didn't pace. Saren never paced. "Trust me with your question and I will trust you with my answer."

"No. I need to know how far you're willing to go, for your beliefs, for your followers, for your survival." He crossed arms over his armor. Always prepared for battle, even when there was no one around to fight. "Asking for your counsel is not the same as asking for your help."

Benezia stopped short. He'd never asked for help before, from anyone, as far as she was aware. His conviction might have made her falter, but she knew what she believed in, what she stood for. "Idle words are a sign of an idle mind. You could not come to me for wisdom if I spoke them."

"There's a… presence the galaxy's forgotten. Your siari teaches we're all part of a greater whole, and there's no point in fighting what you're a part of. But people are going to fight it, regardless. Like biotics, like anything they don't understand. And like any change, there need to be people to enforce it."

"What kind of presence?"

"A powerful one."

"What kind of change?"

"Survival."

"If you need the answer before you can voice the question, perhaps you should not be asking." Benezia was torn. He obviously took it seriously, but he hadn't told her what it was. He sounded as if he spoke of war on a galactic scale. Warring for peace. Another intriguing paradox.

"I shouldn't be, but I am. I'm leaving Thessia soon, I need your answer before I go."

"To a question you cannot ask."

"If you're as wise as you claim, you won't need me to." He shoved himself away from the tree, scrapping off bark with his talons and rending the trunk with scars. "Think on it. I'll be back tomorrow." He went to leave, back to where his transport was parked some ways off, the only one left who'd listened to the sermon but didn't live in the compound itself.

Benezia called out to stop him, trailing after with light, graceful steps that did not mar the grass. "Saren, of all you could ask, why us?"

"You understand what it is to give up personal freedoms, to live with what is needed, not wanted. But mostly, from the first of your lectures I listened to: When faced with an enemy you do not understand, seek to understand them, so they are no longer your enemy." His words were kind, but his eyes were cold and hard. Devoid of compassion. It was a shame. They were such a lovely color.


	2. The Risks We Take

The Risks We Take

Benezia looked out over her followers. They had gathered in the amphitheatre to meet with her, serene in the gentle pink light of Thessia's moon. It tinted their usually blue skin a pleasing shade of lavender. Benezia enjoyed night sermons, to literally see one's surroundings in a new light. It was a shame this would be her last. The moon cast such a lovely color.

"This is not an easy question, and many of you will have no easy answer." She stood with her hands behind her back, a position of attention. "The spiritual energy of the universe is not contained in our one planet, in our many colonies. It is in all species, across all solar-systems. It is why I have long pushed for us to take a more active role among our galactic peers, and it is why I stand before you now."

Benezia let her hands fall to her side. She needed to be at ease, to set her followers at ease. She walked the long breath of the stage, looking at out at the many violet faces staring down at her. So many faces she had never seen before, and may never see again. She usually gave her advice over the forums of Thessia's legislature. These in-person serums were only for the truly devoted, which was as well, as only the truly devoted would be willing to accompany her.

"We are in a twilight hour. What comes with the dawn may be determined by what we decide, here and now. The universe is fractured, we've seen it in the rachni wars, we've seen it in the krogan rebellions, and we may yet see it again. But we have a chance for true unity, true siari, and it is a chance we should be willing to take."

"I am leaving." They had been listening respectfully, almost reverently, but at those three words the murmurs rose, a symphony of discord where once was only silence. It was touching.

"You know of Saren Arterius," She paused, let the name and all it implied sink in, "and those of you who do not will soon enough. He walks a path of darkness, and with no light to guide him will surely lose his way in it."

A gentle breeze graced the night air, and Benezia stretched out her fingers to feel the sensation over every free inch of skin. She knew she might never feel it again. The breeze was chill, and brought with it all the smells of Thessian flame trees, fresh sharblu grass, everspring flowers. Benezia smiled, with Thessia giving her such a farewell, how could she stay? "But it is a path that must be walked. To find the light, we must sometimes brace the dark. For many years, you have listened, but now I must ask, will you act?"

The murmurs ceased, drawing in on themselves as each asari thought for herself and not with her peers. Such loyal followers, to understand the gravity her words, and consider them with the weight they deserved. Benezia's heart swelled, even as several rose silently from their seats and left. Their eyes were downcast, their heads turned away. She wanted to tell them there was no shame in leaving, but she didn't dare influence them. This was their choice to make, and they had to make it on their own.

"Matriach," Alestia Iallis spoke up, Benezia could pick her out in the crowd. She always joined her for her mediations after the sermons. "Will we return to Thessia?"

"I cannot say, Alestia." Benezia answered truthfully.

"How can you speak with such calm?" Shiala. Benezia knew she would stay, no matter her uncertainties. She was a child of faith, with a heart of compassion.

"There is no shame in fear, Shiala." She always spoke their names when she answered. It helped to show she knew them, and all that she asked of them. "There is only shame in how we face it." Some who had been in the midst of leaving the amphitheatre heard her words and stopped. They turned around and sat back down.

All who were willing to follow her were ready by the morrow. They stayed awake through the night, returning to their homes only to inform loved ones of their departure and gather what they wished to take with them. Several simply stayed at the commune, sleeping in the guest rooms, clustered in the halls, or beneath the stars.

Benezia opted for the latter. She went to the small pond of Thessian sunfish and sat at the edge, quietly removing her shoes and easing her feet into the cool waters. It would be her last chance to do so before she joined Saren. She reflected on their conversation the day before. A war was coming, and he had chosen the side he felt would guarantee survival.

She knew him; she knew how he thought and how he worked. Few didn't. He would go as far as he thought he had to to survive. She had to make sure he didn't lose himself along the way. She had to make sure that survival was the right path to take.

"Matriach?" Shiala. Benezia wasn't surprised. She watched the fish beneath the waters and didn't raise her head.

"Sit, child. Speak your mind."

Shiala did so, easing herself onto the grass with such gentle grace the blades seemed undisturbed. "We are going with Saren to guide him down a gentler path. Not to stop a war, but to ease the loses of the one that comes." Benezia nodded. Shiala continued. "… Matriach, is that the only reason we are going?"

Benezia couldn't help the smile that graced her face. Shiala always was a romantic. She would have jumped to such a conclusion before anyone else. But was it the wrong conclusion?

The water was cold. Benezia pulled her feet out and slipped on her shoes. Her memories of the pond were better than the pond actually was. Perhaps Saren was not so different.

"No, child. It is not."


End file.
